MN's Wildcat Sanctuary
saving bobcat from Idaho

When an Idaho sheriff answered a 911 call this week, he found a woman with a history of hoarding animals who had held captive wild wolves and a four year old bobcat.

"They would not have been born except for people breeding them for profit and then selling them to people who shouldn't have them and harboring them under conditions that aren't ideal," said Dr. John Baillie, a veterinarian who treated the bobcat.

Trapped in a small wire cage full of feces and rotting chicken, the bobcat was fed just cat food and yogurt.

But rescued by The Wildcat Sanctuary in Sandstone, the bobcat is getting help, treated for dental disease and tested for infections.

The sanctuary flew the bobcat to Minnesota Monday night hoping to give him the care he needs but never got.

"People think owning exotic animals is wonderful and it's not," said Tammy Quist-Thies, Executive Director of The Wildcat Sanctuary. "Keeping a wild pet is a lot of work, it's illegal in most states and it's not glamorous."

That's one reason the sanctuary gets animals like the bobcat every year, saving them from neglectful owners.

Now the bobcat will have natural habitat and professional care.

"The happy ending is he'll get to be a bobcat for the first time in his life at the wildcat sanctuary," Quist-Thies said.